Letter: What 'false theology'?

Posted: March 3, 2012 - 4:43pm | Updated: March 3, 2012 - 7:06pm

Will someone please explain why Rick Santorum, accompanied by a large contingent of the evangelical right, insists upon questioning the religion or the theology of President Obama, claiming his theology is “not Christian” and is a “false theology”?

Article VI, paragraph 3 of the Constitution states “... no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.”

Wikipedia states: “The clause (just quoted) is cited by advocates of separation of church and state as an example of ‘original intent’ of the Framers of the Constitution of avoiding any entanglement between church and state, or involving the government in any way as a determiner of religious beliefs or practices. This is significant because this clause represents the words of the original framers, even prior to the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment.”

This is bedrock stuff. Why are we even talking about a “false theology” or whether Obama is a Christian?

Because of the First Amendment — which also speaks to freedom of speech as well as to separation of church and state — I suppose discussion of the issue is constitutional.

But it is the most blatant disregard for the principles upon which this nation was founded that I have ever heard in a presidential election.